Native American high school graduate sues school district after she says she wasn't allowed to wear sacred eagle feather at graduation

A high school graduate is suing her former Oklahoma school district after she says school officials prevented her from wearing a sacred eagle plume on her graduation cap.

At issue is an encounter that occurred last year shortly before graduation, according to the lawsuit, which was filed last week in Tulsa County against Broken Arrow Public Schools and two district employees by attorneys representing the student, Lena' Black. She is an enrolled member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe and of Osage descent, according to the lawsuit.

Black was waiting to take her seat for the graduation ceremony at Broken Arrow when, according to the lawsuit, two school officials told her she needed to remove the "decoration" from her cap and then attempted to pull off the eagle plume.

In the suit, Black argues her rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion were violated.

The school district says it has a widely-used process to allow students to get permission to deviate from traditional graduation attire, but the graduate says she wasn't aware of the request process and got permission from a teacher.

"Lena' really felt like this was an attack on, on her person, on her religion, on her culture," Morgan Saunders, an attorney with Native American Rights Fund who is representing Black, told CNN. "She's been using this feather in religious and cultural ceremonies since she was 3 years old and it carries an incredible amount of significance."

During the encounter, the plume was damaged, and Black had a panic attack, according to the lawsuit.